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Lili Yang is a doctoral student at the Northwest A & F University in China. Her major is plant nutrition and her research is focused mainly on fruit nutrition management, especially of kiwifruit.In recent years, the area in China planted with kiwifruit and the total production have ranked first in the world. As the planting area has expanded, there have been many problems with nutrient management in kiwifruit orchards, especially relating to which types of fertilizer can be used. The application of chloride fertilizers may cause salt damage. With misunderstanding about the need to "avoid chlorine crops", and the harmful effects of chlorine on tobacco, the chloride-containing fertilizers have rarely been used by fruit growers. However, kiwifruit vines have a large demand for chlorine. Irrigation is extensively used in kiwifruit orchards in China, so different application rates of chloride-containing fertilizer were tested. The objective was to determine whether chloride-containing fertilizer applied to kiwifruit vines was feasible and to monitor the accumulation of chloride ions in kiwifruit orchard soils. The experimental design involved applying chloride (Cl) at rates of 0, 170, 340, 910, or 1480 kg ha-1, respectively. The results indicated that applying a moderate rate (170-910 kg Cl ha-1) of chloride-containing fertilizer increased kiwifruit yield, improved its quality, and did not have significantly detrimental effects on soil in the short term. A high rate (1480 kg Cl ha-1) was detrimental to the quality of the fruit, reducing the fruit vitamin C and soluble sugar content. Also, the soil Cl concentration (the highest Cl concentration was 262 mg kg-1 in 80-100 cm soil layer) was relatively high. These results are contrary to the commonly-held prejudice against chloride-containing fertilizers.

Lili Yang won an ISHS student award for the best poster at the VIII International Symposium on Mineral Nutrition of Fruit Crops in Italy in June 2017.